Harrison County, West Virginia Biography of Kirk King ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Sue Schell, , March 2000 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, Pg. 326 Kirk King has made a record of splendid achievement in the field of life insurance and is now West Virginia state agent for the Michigan Mutual Life Insurance Company, one of the old and substantial insurance corporation of the United States. Mr. King maintains his home and executive headquarters in the City of Clarksburg, Harrison County, and he is interested also in oil and gas production enterprise in West Virginia. Mr. King was born at Slanesville, Hampshire County, West Virginia, July 20, 1878, and was two years old when his parents removed to Woodstock, Shenandoah County, Virginia, where he was reared to adult age and where he completed his studies in the public and high schools. The family removed in 1895 to Davis, Tucker Co, Where he joined them in the following year. At Davis his father was for several years proprietor of the West Virginia Hotel. Mr. King is a son of Thomas E. and Martha Ann (Vannosdale) King, both deceased, the former of whom died at the age of sixty-seven years and the latter at the same are in January of 1922. Of the four children the subject of this review is the eldest, and the others, Sylvester E., Mary and Pearl, are all married and have children. The parents were born in what is now Hampshire county, West Virginia, where the respective families were established in the pioneer days and where numerous representatives of each still reside. Kirk King celebrated his arrival at his legal majority by taking unto himself a wife, in 1900, and for the ensuing five years he followed the vocation of painter and decorator, two years having been given to his apprenticeship and the remaining three years to independent contracting in this line. In 1905 he became a local agent at Davis for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, and three months later he was promoted to the management of a sub-district, with headquarters at Elkins. After continuing five years in the service of the Metropolitan Life he resigned his position to accept the state agency for the Reserve Loan Life Insurance Company of Indianapolis, Indiana. In April, 1918, he made another significant advance, in his appointment to his present position, that of West Virginia state agent for the Michigan Mutual Life Insurance Company, of Detroit, for which he has since developed a large volume of business in West Virginia, the annual underwriting for the company in this state having now passed the $1,000,000 mark. Aside from his splendid record in the insurance business Mr. King has become identified with oil and gas production, in which connection he is a director of the Latty Oil & Gas Company, besides being one of the principals in the Weekley & King company, drilling contractors, and being associated also with other oil and gas producing corporations operating in the West Virginia fields. He is a stalwart republican, is a member of the Clarksburg Chamber of Commerce and the Cheat Mountain club, is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church. The year 1900 recorded the marriage of Mr. King to Miss Myrtle Wilson, a daughter of T. E. Wilson, a representative merchant at Davis, this state. Mr. and Mrs. King have a fine family of nine children: Frederick Wilson, Constance, Kirk Kenneth, Theodore, Philip Sousa, Dorothy, Virginia, Donald, and Roger.